Business failures surge: German corporate insolvencies continue to climb in August
Corporate insolvencies in Germany continue to rise. In August, the number of registered corporate insolvencies increased by 4.4 percent to 2,067 compared to the previous year's month, reported the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Friday.
The general trend is also upward: In the first eight months of 2026, 17,252 corporate insolvencies were registered. This is 6.6 percent more than in the same period last year. Despite the increasing number of corporate insolvencies, creditors' claims decreased to 25.9 billion euros from 37.2 billion euros in the previous year. The Federal Statistical Office explained that the decline in claims is due to the greater importance of companies filed for insolvency in the first eight months of 2025.
Based on 10,000 companies, there were a total of 48.7 corporate insolvencies from January to August 2026. The highest insolvency frequency was in the transport and warehousing sector, with 97.6 cases per 10,000 companies. This was followed by the hospitality industry with 80.1 cases and the construction industry with 71.9 insolvencies. Consumer insolvencies also increased compared to the previous year. With 52,344 registered consumer insolvencies, the number was 1.2 percent higher than the same period last year.
It should be noted regarding the results that applications are only included in the statistics after the insolvency court makes its initial decision. In many cases, the actual date of the insolvency application is approximately three months earlier.
